Prince Kol

Prince Kol
Kareden leader The Great Hornet
Reign	1786-1787 SR
Successor	Gole Anashary
Personal details
Born	18th CSR
Died	1787 SR

Kol Yarny, known as Prince Kol /kɑːl/ (bukkean: /kʌl/) was a Kareden ruler and a religious leader who led his people on a quest to settle. He is referred to as the Great Hornet in the Kareden religious canon, formalized under Gole Anashary.

History

Early history

Not much is known about Prince Kol's early history or of Kareden, for that matter. When they did emerge in central Tarnaria in the end of the 1750s SR, Prince Kol was already the military and religious leader of his people, leading them to the promise land.

Many historical accounts and later religious texts, when speaking of the Great Hornet, claim that he was raised in a wealthy family and "knew the blessings of this world". However, it's not clear if these historical accounts are independent or are themselves based on the canon of the light-green branch of Xaewoon.

First conquest: Junjuhl

The Kareden became known in 1758 SR when they attacked Junjuhl. At the time Junjuhl was known for their bronzesmiths, who, among other things, were producing weapons for many city-states of Tarnaria.

Prince Kol attacked the city from three sides: from the south, from the east and from the north, thus creating an effect of the city being surrounded by hordes of warriors. The city was considered to be well protected and such a sudden onslaught proved to be so unexpected that the city was overtaken within several hours.

However, unbeknown to the Kareden, the city housed a superhero warrior by the name of Tunned Keept, who had the ability to transform into an enormous beast. Tunned began transforming right within the city, and as he was growing, his huge body began shattering walls and whole buildings, as well as killing thousands of people in his way. By the time Tunned was done, a lot of the city was destroyed by his body alone.

Suffering significant losses, the Kareden have temporarily fallen back, but during nightfall, when Tunned was still guarding the city, they began an attack on him which lasted several days. The Kareden were shooting Tunned with arrows and spears, while he found it difficult to attack them due to their comparably small size and large numbers. Eventually, they were able to run him down and he died from multiple wounds and exhaustion.

This was an important victory for the Kareden, as they were not only able to loot the city and take some of the best weapons made at the time, but also enslave several hundred bronzesmiths, who ended up producing high quality weapons for the Kareden armies throughout their conquests.

Kareden left the almost completely destroyed Junjuhl several months later. The city was quickly rebuilt and regained its status as a trade and production center already two years later, although it did lose its bronze weapons expertise, as virtually all masters of the craft were either killed or enslaved by Prince Kol.

Kardon

Prince Kol led his people further north. A year later the army approached the fortified city of Kardon, which was another large city-state of Central Tarnaria. It was founded by the superhero warrior Runr and her brother Kandeer.

Taking advantage of their nomadic lifestyle, Prince Kol initiated a series of raids on Kardon, while moving around the city in a circle and not allowing the kardonian army to counter-attack him easily: several army units would approach from one direction, attack, and then leave in another direction. By the time Kardon would send an army to follow them, the Kareden would have moved somewhere else. Although several battles did occur, most of the time Kardon forces were not able to locate the main army, as it was constantly on the move.

Prince Kol would also attack the city from several directions at the same time, similar to his strategy with Junjuhl.

This lasted for almost a year, effectively initiating a military blockade of Kardon, the citizens of which were not able to safely travel outside the city walls. Runr, who had the ability to animate water, was not able to use her abilities to attack, since the region around Kardon is fairly dry, so her powers were helpful as defense within the city, which had access to underground waters, but she was more or less useless to her army if there were no large bodies of water nearby.

Eventually, Kandeer decided to secretly send Runr out of Kardon, so that she would escape the siege and possibly find help. She had several men accompany her, carrying a large water container that she would be able to use as a weapon.

This plan had worked to the extent that Runr was able to leave Kardon. However, her travels had an unpredictable turn and she never returned to Kardon again, which fell to Prince Kol a month later. Kareden mercelessly murdered its inhabitants and leveled the city. Kandeer died in battle.

Prince Kol did not stay in the area for long, since he decided that it is not Mamkoon, the homeland.

Udds Kingdom

The Kareden then ventured to the west. Having circled Kardon for months, they had the chance to learn all the incoming trade parties. They would purchase from some, rob others. One of the product lines came from a tiny kingdom called the Udds Kingdom. Famous for pranl, an alcoholic beverage, it was comfortably situated on the border between Teamatian and Tarnaria, supplying both regions with the drink. Udds was ruled by a wealthy and eccentric Udds family, and the only city of the kingdom was Uddsdon.

Prince Kol's plan towards the Udds Kingdom is not well understood. When the Kareden made it to the kingdom, Udds sent several trontels full of pranl, as well as several representatives of the Udds Kingdom who requested to join the Kareden in order to help maintain supply lines with Udds.

The Kareden then settled around 60 kilometers away from Budds for five years, perhaps in order to recuperate after several years of conquests and a significant lost of people at Junjuhl.

A Quest to Osa Nara

After none of these lands seemed to work out for the Kareden, Prince Kol met a group of travelers, who were telling stories about the wonderful land of Osa Nara. Captivated by the idea, Prince Kol ventured further to the north, after which an army led by several of his generals, including the tarnarian Deiecut Norna, conquered Osa Nara in a two-year campaign.

Prince Kol became ruler of the land, as Deiecut became army leader and expanded the country to the east, overtaking the troubled state of Xornerian. When he came back from the conquests, he was able to dethrone Prince Kol in a ceremony which Kol thought was to be a celebration of the formation of the kingdom. Instead, Deiecut argued that Prince Kol's visionary duties had been finished, since Mamkoon was found. He also referred to Prince Kol as the Great Hornet for the first time, suggesting that, having fulfilled his role, he should now be excised from the hive. Taking the Kareden name of Anashary, at the same ceremony Deiecut proclaimed himself to be the new Prince.

Prince Kol was, thus, stripped of all the power and instead given an honorary religious role. Several months later he attempted to retake power, but Anashary's grip on power was too strong, and his own generals betrayed Kol in order to win favors with Anashary. The former prince was then executed by Deiecut, but it was dressed up as a religious ceremony, upon which "the Great Hornet leaves the nest", with the Kareden watching Prince Kol leave to the east and cheering for him. Prince Kol was instructed to travel back to his place of birth and come back and teach the tenets of religion to the young. However, later in the night several Anashary's men have caught up with Prince Kol and murdered him.

Anashary took the title of Gole shortly thereafter.

Legacy

As a historical figure

Prince Kol left a strange trace in history. The leader of the Kareden people, the warlord who left a bloody trail in Tarnaria, and the founder of the Kingdom of Mamkoon, his swift loss of power to Gole Anashary had essentially reduced his role in history to a brief mention.

Another reason is that the Kareden were nomads, and Prince Kol's conquests, while leaving a bloody trail behind them, were quickly forgotten and cities rebuilt: Junjuhl and Kardon have regained their population and wealth just two years after being decimated by Prince Kol. Toyen sprung back up within just several months. Or was never occupied and neither was Udds.

However, several accounts of Prince Kol exist, based on stories from the Kareden who accompanied him on his conquests, mostly written in oino by osanarians. A number of mentions is made by his contemporaries in Tarnaria, although due to the Kareden nomadic lifestyle, these accounts are brief.

According to these accounts, Prince Kol was uncharacteristically tall for a Kareden, well spoken and liked long philosophical discussions, although these discussions were described as intimidating.

His leadership style was based entirely on the concept of loyalty: his trust meant autonomy and power, the loss of trust meant a swift loss of status, humiliation and often death. He based his trust on a gut feeling, and sometimes people would get demoted or killed simply because he did not like them, or get away with clear transgressions because he refused to withdraw his trust.

Prince Kol was also known to toy with people's careers. He would sometimes pick a regular soldier and promote them to general. Or he would suddenly call a general to his quarters and tell them that he needs them to prove their loyalty, and demote them to a regular soldier. He would then invite the demoted general for casual conversations, expecting the former general to show that they are still happy and completely loyal to the Prince. This was portrayed as a test that one could pass, but more often than not these demotions were permanent and fatal: Prince Kol would simply wait until the demoted general, now serving as a regular soldier, would be killed in battle. In fact, he would sometimes specifically send the unit with someone he had demoted into the midst of battle in order to have them killed.

Prince Kol's trust in Dieicut was said to be absolute, and Dieicut's betrayal was unexpected. That for the first time in his life Prince Kol was not in a position to immediately punish the traitor made him furious. His attempt at regaining power was poorly thought through and rushed, although it is generally agreed that there was no viable way for Prince Kol to gain back political power at that point. That he was betrayed by veterans of his old army was a complete humiliation that was said to had completely destroyed him. He was described as "dazed and lifeless" in his last days of life.

He was also said to have had many relationships with women and had many children as a result, but no historical records exist of their fate or if any of them had ever made a claim to power.

As a religious figure

The power struggle was concealed from the public behind the veneer of religious imagery and ritual. Gole Anashary reveled in the process of creating new theology with Prince Kol in it.

He was weaved into the Kareden branch of Xaewoon as the Great Hornet, a visionary whose mission was to lead his people to the homeland, and who then went away to join the Eternal Companion. The rite of passage into adulthood began to include seeing the Great Hornet fly beside the Eternal Companion. Most believers would stare at the sky for minutes, until they would convince themselves that they do see a small speck of light near the star.

Another legend includes the story that the Great Hornet will return from the east, to lead his people to the New Mamkoon. This was a story that was especially favored by Gole Anashary, who wanted to keep his options open, as he was eyeing Darda for possible conquests. In reality, the idea of New Mamkoon became more popular with the deterioration of the Kingdom of Mamkoon, and several religious sects made the wait for the return of Prince Kol as the Great Hornet a central piece of their theology, which was then exported to the east after the migration of the Kareden from Loodon.